Last Sunday, I went to the school to perform my duty as official human trophy. P*ngsan high school is a private boarding school with limited spots available every year. In fact, they will only admit 100 students into the new 1st grade class. Admittance is highly competitive. This year alone there are over 600 applicants from all over Korea. Sunday was an information session for parents and prospective students. I was asked by Mr. Lee and the principal to be present. Of course, I acquiesced.
The students thoroughly cleaned the place and were assigned positions at the front gate and any other doorway to bow to the guests. It was fun to see their communal bows perfectly timed about every 30 seconds as someone new approached. I arrived at P*ngsan at 2, got a spiffy name tag that translates to "Foreign Language Teacher" (I'm not quite sure if they mean I teach a foreign language or that I'm a foreigner...probably both), and was ushered into the cafeteria which was providing tasty morsels. This would have all well and good except there were no other teachers around, and I don't speak Korean. Oh, and everyone stares at me. I'm always in the spotlight here with people watching my every move. So, I entered the cafeteria, people stopped what they were doing for the obligatory stare, then awkwardly made my way to the food table. I opted to stay away from anything that would require me to use chopsticks because, honestly, I get stage fright around native chopstick users.
Noticing I was the only teacher around, I gravitated to the students bowing at the door. "I'm gonna hang out with you guys a little bit because I seem to be the only teacher here." They smiled and nodded between bows. At this point, I noticed that I enjoy hanging out with my students outside of class because I don't have to worry about shoving useful content into their brains. Ten long minutes later, I walked over to the auditorium. It was here that all the prospective parents and students awaited the juicy details. Everyone was required to put little booties over their shoes rather than having a pile of 1000 shoes outside the door. The principal ushered me over to some chairs near the stage. I sat, then he left. I was the only one sitting in a row of 10 chairs for a significantly long period of time. What did I do? Tried not to stare back at people and let my mind wander into the netheregions of consciousness.
Finally, it was time for the presentation. The principal said a little spiel, then introduced everyone (now ten of us) sitting against the wall. I was introduced after the vice principal, administrators, highest ranking teacher, and Mr. Lee-in hierarchical order. I stood up and bowed to the crowd like the others. Too bad I'm short because some people were really straining to get a good look at the foreigner. Just then I realized that there were no other teachers introduced. In fact, most of the other teachers were long gone by now. Ummmm. Turns out I'm something of a trophy for P*ngsan high school. My presence says, "Look at us! We're special. Look, we've got a foreigner here!" I shrugged this off and sat back down. Part of the job, I spose.
I sat in that chair while people spoke in Korean for over an hour. Every detail must have been covered in this presentation. From the history of the school's founding to George Bush senior's visit last year...no tidbit was left unspoken. There was one exciting section. A rock band composed of 2nd grade (junior) students performed a famous Korean pop song. It was fantastic! One guy dished out a solo on his guitar, and the singer sang in that peculiarly Korean way. Otherwise, the rest of the time was Mr. Lee reading a powerpoint and highlighting especially special aspects of P*ngsan. I attempted to comprehend some of the Korean but found this exhausting and once again turned of the most active part of my brain. Everyone else in the room seemed to get antsy and bored toward the end too. In fact, when the presentation was over, most people bolted for the door. I immediately got up, picked up my stuff, and took the bus home. It's funny how sitting bored for an hour actually zaps all your energy for the day. I just wanted a nap.
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